A coupon for $2 off a calzone could be the key to a business keeping its doors open when economists drop the word "recession" and worried consumers snap their wallets shut.That's the kind of advice decades-old companies that have weathered tough times say will help businesses survive. Now is not the time to hide and hope it blows over, these entrepreneurs advise.So a restaurant distributes its coupons for meals, offering to take less for the same product. A baker finds new distributors. A clothier orders fewer shirts. The messages fall under two themes: pumping up marketing and finding efficiencies. And if those fail, experts say businesses should seek help before giving up. Here's what four California companies are doing:Dennis Perkins, president of Brownie Baker, has changed the way his Fresno company makes the muffins, brownies, cookies and cinnamon rolls sold in convenience stores around the country.Perkins said he has watched the cost of diesel fuel and his main ingredients skyrocket: Egg prices have doubled, the cost of flour is soaring and the bill for the soybean oil he buys by the tanker truck rose from $12,000 to $23,000 in a year.He has raised prices on his baked goods, but also found other ways to save money. Perkins said he stopped using smaller distributors that sent trucks a quarter or half full to the East Coast and cost him $5,000 each.Instead, he switched to larger "master distributors" that could accept full loads and parcel them out to smaller distributors in their network."It cuts freight costs pretty much in half," he said.Perkins also made a deal with Producers Dairy in Fresno, whose freight trucks leave Fresno for all directions filled with milk. Instead of driving empty trucks back to Fresno, Perkins convinced Producers to pick up chocolate, shortening and other ingredients to deliver to The Brownie Baker.The result was a cheaper rate and saved hiring another shipping company, he said.X...X...XProfessional Print & Mail, a Fresno company that started 23 years ago, prints everything from business cards to banners increases the direct mail advertisements that go to residents' mailboxes in tough times, said president Doug Carlile."It brings in new customers," he said. "It brings in more business from your existing customers."X...X...XAfter 52 years, the owners of DiCicco's, a downtown Fresno Italian restaurant, have learned that marketing is just as important as pasta."I definitely wouldn't cut back on marketing right now," said Joanna Vitucci, one of the owners.She said DiCicco's uses coupons and deals to remind customers the business is there and get them into the restaurant."People love coupons," said Vitucci, whose newspaper coupons offer $5 or $10 off dinner, or $2 off a calzone.DiCicco's looks for efficiencies, too: Employees work fewer hours during slow shifts -- and have even been laid off in the past, Vitucci said.X...X...XPatrick James, the "purveyor to gentlemen," has found efficiencies in ordering clothes for its 16 upscale menswear stores across the western United States.The Fresno-based company started 46 years ago."The No. 1 thing is controlling our inventory," said buyer Patrick Mon Pere Jr. That often means ordering six shirts of a certain type instead of 10, he said.The business also slows -- but doesn't stop -- its growth, taking a long, detailed look at plans to open new stores. During past healthy economic times, the company typically opened about one store every two years."We've been through contraction and expansion," Mon Pere said. "We still plan on growing." E-mail Bethany Clough at bclough(at)fresnobee.com(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
Post new comment